Christine Horgan

Pamela:

Your comments have got me thinking.

Initially, and despite the title of the seminar, I was thinking in terms of personal (vs. professional) learning and so any evaluation would be personal and probably subjective.

Teachers often see evidence of informal learning in the questions learners ask, the reflections and observations in their written responses, and the nature of their musings in discussion groups (in-class and on-line).

Certainly, the broader knowledge of the learner is picked up in the formal evaluations (of assignments). I wonder if informal learning is "informally" evaluated in the professionalism component of a course. If so, I also wonder about, and worry about, the subjective nature of such a mark.

For now, I can see the value of capturing informal learning (perhaps through journaling/blogging), but I'm wondering if we should be trying to evaluate informal learning if it has a grade attached to it.

Cheers, Chris Horgan

hello:

Like Barbara, I work in an institution where sharing paper resources is the done thing. Instructors willingly share materails and create materails in a co-operative environment. When we first moved to blended/facilitated distance courses, thee was (I think) a big leap from creating one's own materials to developing common, default materials that all instructors had access to.

As I work in a service area, our materials are avaialble to anyone and we regularly cannibalize course materials for other courses we offer in our school.

SAIT is also part of the eCampusAlberta consortium where sharing resources is now a given for on-line courses offered through eCA and/or taking eCA funds for development.

The next big leap for us is (a) sharing our on-line materials with the world (or at least outside of Alberta but within Canada), and (b) sharing other people's resources.

(b) is where we've run into some intersting situations. We've discovered some very useful materials on line but we can't use them in a course becasue it's considered a commercial product. Even Learning Commons materails have proved to be problematic.

As my colleague (Anca Medesan) is also participating in this seminar, she may have some further comments.

My interest (perhaps because I'm at the start of my journey) is around how we can use already developed materials in our courses without running afoul of copyright issues.

Thanks, Chris

Hello Scott

Chris Horgan (SAIT Polytechnic, Calgary, Alberta).

Just dipping a toe in the waters of open educational resources so I'm expecting to be an active lurker vs. a participant. Looking forward to the wisdom of those further along on their journey.

My role at SAIT is as Curriculum Co-ordinator for a large service department.

Cheers, Chris

Sylvia:

I realize that my admission might be close to heresy, but I don't blog and I seldom now check out blogs. ...and that I will be taking a round-about way to get to my question.

Why? I see no need professionally, and I value my privacy in my personal life, and I prefer a more personal contact with my friends. I've read a number of blogs--different approaches by different writers--and when I want information I find I want the Readers' Digest version first (probably very narrow minded of me) becasue I find I have to take in a lot of information in the course of my day. Many blogs just don't hold me interest long enough or get to the information I want quickly enough, so I find myself choosing to wander away.

I suspect I'm missing a lot as a result, and as a coping strategy, wandering away from blogs may not be productive.

But....I belong to that group of folks who cheerfully/out of necessity uses technology because it makes work easier....but I'm not a techie type.

Now to the question: why do those who do blog, blog? Why would a blogger feel that a non-blogger should blog (or at least consult blogs)?

Thanks, Chris

Nik and Jeffrey:

I'm interested in knowing how blogging and managing/engaging in multimemberships contribute to greater learning. Jeffrey, can you elaborate on what the gap is between those who do blog/have multimemberships and those whose who don't.

Thanks, Chris Horgan (SAIT Polytechnic, Canada)